A content analysis of oral health related messages delivered through regional newspapers: hubli-dharwad

Background: The contribution of print media in providing information and transfer of knowledge is remarkable with the advantage of making a longer impact on the minds of the reader and also has wide coverage in both urban and rural areas targeting a range of age groups. Objectives: To assess the quantity and quality of oral health related information in 4 leading Kannada daily newspapers in the region of Hubli-Dharwad. Materials and Methods: Oral health related content was recovered from these newspapers from April 2017 to September 2017 using 4 leading Kannada newspapers namely Vijaya Karnataka, Samyukta Karnataka, Prajavani and Udayavani. Level score index was used for the overall qualitative analysis of all information. Data were entered into a standard Microsoft Excel 2007 sheet for descriptive analysis. Results: Among 720 newspapers which were studied during the period of study Oral health related information was published 23times (3.1%).Out of which 30.4% was general oral health awareness,21.7% articles were on dental caries, 17.3% on periodontal diseases, 8.6%on malocclusion, 4.3% related to oral cancer. The remaining 17.3% was purely advertisements. In this sample overall qualitative assessment of the collected information using the level score index was 82.5%. Conclusion: Oral health related messages conveyed in regional print media are inadequate, but the quality of information published is accurate. As Mass media being an important source of health information to the general public; it can be better utilized by publishing articles frequently to create awareness on oral health.